Broc

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old dialect name for the badger, a burrowing, nocturnal mammal with a striped face
2. Archaic or regional term for the badger, the stocky, grey-coated animal that digs setts in woodland
3. A dated regional word meaning badger, referring to the nocturnal digging mammal of the weasel family

Etymology: Before it named a creature, this word named a badger. Old English "brocc" meant badger, and it survives in modern English mainly as the dialect form "brock," still used in parts of northern England and Scotland. The animal's name has an unusual pedigree: the Germanic word is generally thought to have been borrowed from a Celtic source, related to Old Irish "broc" and Welsh "broch," so the badger's name came into English from the speakers of the older British languages. The word also left its mark on the map. Place names such as Brockley and Brockhampton contain the same element, pointing to places where badgers were common or where people once knew the animal by this name. The English name "badger" itself is less certain in origin, and it appears to have replaced "brock" as the standard term over the later Middle Ages, leaving "brock" as a regional survival.